I have a star named Gremhog in the lovely galaxy. This blog will be dedicated to the stars in my life...the ones known and the ones yet to be discovered.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

feb 22....where you work

I have been most blessed that I have not really had to leave my home to go to work except for the period of time when Robert was out of work due to a strike. He continued to get find temporary employment hauling carpets for a friend. I was fortunate to be asked, 'why aren't you substitute teaching?' something I never thought about during those trying months. So I did, and I continued this for about 2 years, even after Robert went back to the mill because I had agreed to the time. We were blessed. But throughout my years, I have always taught piano lessons. It wasn't huge income but it was enough to pay some bills, buy some gifts, little things. This is my piano..it's Bush and Lane, built in 1925. Once I found out how old it was, I enjoyed teasing my mom that it was one year younger than she was. This piano belonged to my grandfather, Richard James Holman, who was an opera singer, concert pianist and best man ever! He loved my grandmother even tho her parents had arranged a marriage for her to a mean, nasty, and abusive drunk. She gave birth to my mom and when mom was 8 years old my grandmother had had enough and decided to divorce Thomas (Joseph Morley Thomas). She gave my mom the choice of going with her or staying with her father (which would have meant moving to England because that's what Thomas did). My mom had had enough of sleeping in a bed made in the bathtub which is how my grandmother kept her safe many nights, tired of being whipped with a riding crop which he kept on the back of his dining room chair if she dared to misspeak or act up.

So they left a wealthy home and went to poverty. My grandfather Richard (Poppy as I called him) had come to the US in order to be around just in case something happened...because he knew what Thomas was. They reconnected, married, and was the father every girl, especially my mom, deserved to have.

This piano he bought used after living in Stan Hwyett Hall, run by the Seiberling family who were great patrons of the arts. And it was from this piano that their home was filled with music and joy and singing. When Poppy died in 1960, I was given his piano. My mom had it refinished to match her Italian provincial furniture but I swore when I could afford it, it would go back to being black...which you can see happened.

I still give piano lessons. Currently I have 10 students, 1 being an adult (adult ward members get free lessons if they want them....sadly few have taken me up on that offer...Robert and I actually counted them a few nights ago...I think it was about 5 in all these years. Weird. I snap up all free offers).

So altho I really don't work hard, I do work...around the home which is the best place to work, and beside students at this piano.